Sixteen students arrested in İstanbul for protesting rising child worker deaths

Sixteen students who protested the Education Minister Yusuf Tekin over student worker deaths in vocational training programs were arrested yesterday. The students, all members of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP), were taken into custody after the Dec 2 protest in İstanbul.

The students who gathered outside a vocational training event attended by the minister displayed a banner reading, “The blood of the children is on your hands” in protest of fatalities among student workers enrolled in the Vocational Education Center (MESEM) program, which falls under the National Education Ministry.

Seventeen people were initially detained following the protest. Prosecutors sought the arrest of the students without first taking their statements.

The Bakırköy Duty Penal Judgeship of Peace ordered the arrest of 16 individuals on charges of “resisting a public officer to prevent them from performing their duty” and “damaging property.”

The court justified the arrests by claiming there was “concrete evidence indicating a strong suspicion of crime,” based on the on-site inspection report and video footage of the protest. The court contended that the arrests were a proportional measure.

TİP responds to arrests

TİP released a statement on social media yesterday, condemning the arrests and the government’s handling of the issue.

The party stated, “Those who condemn millions of children to hunger, those who drag youth into a futureless state, those who send high school students to die in MESEMs; they are mistaken if they think they can cover up these crimes by arresting 16 TİP members.

“We will fight more, we will stand up against you more! We are addressing those who mobilize all the means of their power for the wealth of a handful of rich people, those who try to take out the rage of millions saying ‘protect our children’ on the youth who bravely raise their voices.”

Rise in child worker fatalities

The protests stem from a growing concern over work-related fatalities involving children in Turkey. Figures from the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG), an organization that monitors work-related deaths nationwide, show that a total of 85 child workers have died so far this year. This marks the highest number recorded by İSİG since it began keeping statistics in 2011.

While media reports indicate that some of the deceased were MESEM students, the exact number of fatalities among students in the program has not been disclosed by authorities.

According to İSİG, at least 11 child workers under the MESEM program died in work-related incidents in the 2023-24 school year.

The MESEM program

The Vocational Education Center (MESEM) program was included in the scope of formal and compulsory education in 2016. It is administered by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education under the National Education Ministry.

The program, which is open to students who have completed at least middle school, lasts four years. Students are instructed in 34 fields and 184 professions. The curriculum requires students to spend four days a week gaining practical training under a master at a workplace and one day a week attending theoretical lessons and difference courses at school. Graduates receive both a high school diploma and a mastery certificate.

Child rights advocates argue that the MESEM implementation legitimizes child labor and jeopardizes children’s lives by placing them in unsupervised environments, thereby detaching them from formal education. (VK)